Earliest member of giant panda family found in Spain

Juan Abella of Spain's National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid and his colleagues, who examined the teeth, say that they belong to the Ailuropodinae - a bear subfamily of which the giant panda is the only survivor.

The ancient species, Agriarctos beatrix, may have shared the panda's distinctive hairdo. Although it is not obvious in some existing bear species, they generally have a similar pattern of coloration. "Most are dark, with light patches mainly on the chest and around the eyes," Abella says (Estudios Geológicos, DOI: 10.3989/egeol.40714.182).

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